prince gong's mansion (residence of the last qing emperor's father)

prince gong's mansion was first built in front of lion alley in the eastern sector of di'anmen (gate of earthly peace) dongjie (east street). but the present prince gong's mansion is located at 17 qianhai xijie on the east bank of shicha lake. the mansion is the most exquisitely decorated and best preserved of the princes' mansions in the capital. besides the residence there is also a large garden.

prince gong (1832-1898), or yixin, was the most prominent figure in empress dowager cixi's (1835-1908) times. his palace is among the best-preserved qing dynasty (1644-1911) architecture in beijing. a large garden covers the north half of the 5.7 square kilometres of grounds, and the front gate combines chinese and western designs. although qing dynasty rulers were known for strict observance to ancient customs, they could not escape the influence of western civilization. the gate tells the story of how different civilizations can co-exist in harmony. inside the gate stands a 5-metre-high stone. like the other stones in the garden, it came from lake tai in wuxi, jiangsu province. the stone attracts visitors' attention and thereby prevents the intricacies of the garden from being taken in at one glance. named "peak of self-enjoyment," the stone typifies ancient chinese scholars' pride in keeping apart from worldly ways. as an educated man, prince gong shared this view, but he also was an important official. in 1861, when emperor xianfeng (ruled 1851-1861) fell seriously ill, cixi's 6-year-old son zaichun was the only eligible successor. but xianfeng sensed her ambition and named eight ministers to aid the new emperor tongzhi (ruled 1862-1874). that winter, cixi sought prince gong's help and captured the eight ministers, three of whom she promptly i ordered suffocated. from then on, cixi attended to the state affairs, with a veil to separate her and the obedient court. prince gong's crucial role in building cixi's power nevertheless did not endear him to her. cixi never ceased suspecting him. in the ensuing 40 years, she dismissed him twice and kept a firm grip on power. therefore, it is not surprising that prince gong had the "peak of self-enjoyment" set to comfort himself and appease the distrustful empress dowager. a few steps north of the peak, flowing cup pavilion nestles in a pile of stones. a tiny tunnel linked with the gar- den stream snakes through the stone floor. merry-makers would play a drinking game by floating wine cups through the tunnel. when a cup be- came lodged in it, the person closest to the cup would have to drink from it. the tradition came from eastern jin dynasty (ad 317-ad 420) practice. in those days, people celebrated the third day of the third lunar month by bathing in the garden's streams in hopes of gaining good luck and health. in the qing dynasty, the manchurian rulers eagerly indulged in the practice at flowing-cup pavilion. furthermore, the water on which the wine cups floated came from the jade spring hill on the western out-skirts of beijing. prince gong's mansion was the only place outside the forbidden city that could use the sacred water.

through several moon-shaped gates and covered corridors north of the pavilion, an elegant building nestles among bamboo and chinese parasols. its roofs point upward like the wings of a flying bird, and the pillars are all painted like bamboo. this is the "hermit cottage amid green bamboo." legend has it that shun (c. 2250 bc), one of the three prehistoric kings in chinese civilization, died on a southern inspection tour. his two wives wept so bitterly their tears spotted every nearby bamboo tree. in his great work a dream of red mansions, cao xueqin (?-1763) designed a similar bamboo house for the sentimental character lin daiyu. a few steps away from the hermit cottage is the highest spot in the garden, the terrace of inviting the moon. in the a dream of red mansions, the once-prosperous jia family celebrated a mid-autumn festival such a terrace in their grand view garden. east and west of the terrace two covered corridors tilting down the hill. downhill from the terrace is the cave of mystic clouds. stretching east and west, the cave is shaped like a flying bat, "fu," (meaning happiness in chinese). at the cave centre, which also falls on the main axis of the garden, there stands a stele inscribed in emperor kangxi's handwriting "fu." no one knows for sure how it had got it, be- cause nobody was allowed to move or imitate the emperor's handwriting in the qing dynasty. one theory is that emperor qianlong (ruled 1736-1795) gave it to his favourite minister he shen (1750-1799).

most researchers agree that he shen lived there before prince gong. as the father of the emperor's son-in-law, he shen enjoyed unrivaled power and prestige. in the last two decades of qianlong's rule, he shen amassed 800 million taels of silver and enlarged his palace several times. when emperor qianlong died, emperor jiaqing (ruled 1796-1820) immediately arrested he shen and gave him a rope to hang himself. among the 20 charges against he shen, emperor jiaqing said the setting of his garden was too similar to that of the imperial garden, yuanmingyuan (the old summer palace), a crime that could lead to the execution of he shen's entire family. in front of the terrace and the cave is the hall of tranquility and goodness. here prince gong met with many foreign guests.

in early 1861, before fleeing english and french troops, emperor xianfeng asked his younger brother, prince gong, to chair an office that could deal with the foreigners. thus came the famous "zongliyamen" (government office of dealing with foreign affairs). under prince gong's leadership, this quasi-foreign ministry borrowed astounding sums from western allies to establish the first chinese navy, and more importantly, to quash the unceasing peasant uprisings, the biggest one being the "taiping heavenly kingdom revolution (1851-1864), and the "boxer uprising" (1900). it is very likely that in the hall of tranquility and goodness, the qing rulers and their western allies made several secret deals. to the west of the hall is a 400-square metre pond. south of the pond is the cherry-shaped fragrance pavilion and a 20-metre mini city wall. the lintel of the city gate bears the carving: "yu pass," the original name of the shanhaiguan (mountain and sea) pass in northern hebei province. built in 1381, the shanhaiguan pass, is between the bohai sea to the south and the jiaoshan mountain to the north. it is the eastern starting point of the great wall and the only pass between the northeast and central china. be- fore conquering the rest of china and naming beijing the qing dynasty capital in 1644, the nomadic ancestors of manchu rulers lived in the northeast for thousands of years. with a miniature shanhaiguan pass, prince gong not only provided a unique wall for his garden, but also ex- pressed his faithfulness to his manchurian origins. as the years passed, neither the shanhaiguan pass nor prince gong's faithfulness maintained the manchu reign.

the princes' mansions and large-scale private houses in beijing were often built with walled flower gardens laid out either behind or to the sides of the main buildings. nowadays, a few such mansions dating from the qing dynasty are still standing. these gardens are ingeniously constructed with complementary buildings and terraces, well-spaced vegetation and hill i paths that wind their way around cool and tranquil grottos. they are an exquisite combination of classical chinese architecture and tasteful landscape.

beginning from as early as ad 1421, a lot of princes' mansions were built in this city. as time went by, few such mansions have been left so far.

in 1911, 14 years after prince gong's death, the three-century qing dynasty finally collapsed amid internal revolutions and foreign invasions, leaving places like prince gong's mansion to stand proof of that turbulent period of history.

 

 

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